Published: Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 6:32 p.m.

GERTON — High above the Hickory Nut Gorge, a crew of college kids was roughing out a mountain trail through thick rhododendron Wednesday when they disturbed a yellow jacket nest under a boulder. Tools were cast aside as the students scattered from the swarm.

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Several were stung, but the eight-person crew just let the bees settle down and kept working, moving boulders with steel levers, lopping limbs and breaking rock with sledges. It was all in a day's work for the North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps recruits.

While many of their friends partied at the beach this summer, members of this NCYCC crew were getting back to nature while bolstering their resumes, camping out for five weeks in the gorge and building trail for the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy.

“This is our first step into the world of conservation work,” said William Shay, 21, an N.C. State University student from Sanford who hopes to become a fisheries biologist. “I also feel like, I'm going into my senior year and if there's anything that's going to get me ready for the intense work that I need to do well next semester, this is it.”

Shay is among 32 students who will spend seven weeks this summer working on projects to preserve, restore and improve some of North Carolina's most treasured lands. Modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, the NCYCC uses the natural world as a platform for teaching jobs skills, community service and environmental stewardship.

It will take the co-ed crew five weeks to painstakingly construct 1 mile of trail across steep terrain from Little Bearwallow Falls to Wildcat Rock, the second phase of a three-mile connection that will eventually allow hikers and trail runners to travel a 15-mile loop through the upper Hickory Nut Gorge.

Made possible by three landowners who have donated or sold almost 130 acres to CMLC, the conservation project will give visitors their first opportunity to explore Wildcat Rock's granite outcroppings and the verdant forest of Little Bearwallow Mountain's northeastern slopes.

Last spring, a crew from the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and a private trail contractor, Trail Dynamics, completed the first, mile-long phase of the Little Bearwallow Trail for CMLC. It climbs 650 feet to a 100-foot waterfall and will be opened to public access Aug. 27.

But the second phase tackled by the NCYCC crew is “much more labor-intensive because it parallels cliff faces and goes through a lot of boulder fields,” said Peter Barr, trails and outreach coordinator for CMLC. “We're fortunate to have such an incredibly skilled crew who can manipulate rock so well to make a trail under these rugged conditions.”

Compared to their last assignment this summer at Spencer Woods Park near Salisbury, the Little Bearwallow work is both more strenuous and less predictable, said NCYCC crew leader Eamon Brennan, a Michigan City, Ind. native who has lived out of his truck for the past six years building trails in New York, Vermont and Arizona.

“Here, everything is like a little puzzle,” Brennan said. “You have to figure out how you're going to get this massive rock down this slope safely. How are you going to get it in place and how to do you make sure it's stable? Every little thing is a very elaborate, creative process. You're always thinking.”

Crew members start their day around 5:30 a.m., eating a communal breakfast in camp and preparing lunches for their day in the field. Aside from a mid-morning and mid-afternoon “GORP break” and lunch, the crew spends roughly nine hours a day hiking, raking out trail beds, moving boulders, building steps and busting rock.

They're paid minimum wage for the rugged work, which Shay acknowledged isn't as much as he could make waiting tables or landscaping, as he's done in past summers.

“But the good thing about being here is you don't have to spend money,” he said. “Even though I don't make as much money doing this and it's just as hard — if not harder — work, I'm going to have more money saved at the end of the summer than I would otherwise.”

For Shakita Holloway, 23, of Burlington, work in Hickory Nut Gorge is an opportunity to build her resume after earning a graduate degree in anthropology from the Catholic University of America. She hopes to become an archaeologist.

“Right now, I'm just trying to do as much field work as possible,” she said. “It'd be good to have excavation experience, but this is helpful.”

There are other perks to the lifestyle of camping out for seven weeks and working in the woods, Brennan said.

“The best part is you get back in the cycle with the actual seasons and the sun,” he said. “You still use flashlights, but we wake up by 5:45 every morning and I'm usually in bed by 9:30, so it's kind of different from what I do during my off-season.”

Besides the occasional bees nest, the young laborers must contend with lightning, damp gear and a string of minor injuries from working with rock and tools. Crew members can't use cell phones, alcohol or tobacco during their service. But Shaw Stanford, an N.C. State senior from Beaverdam, Va. said that's little sacrifice.

“I've done basic construction work during the summer and I've coached baseball one summer, but I grew up in the woods hunting and fishing and this is where I belong,” he said. “I'd rather be doing this than be inside doing paperwork or something.”

The public is invited to explore the first phase of the Little Bearwallow Trail at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug 27 at the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge trailhead on U.S. Highway 74-A. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held by CMLC, Henderson County Parks and Recreation and the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce. Visit www.carolinamountain.org or call Barr at 697-5777 for more details.

<p>GERTON — High above the Hickory Nut Gorge, a crew of college kids was roughing out a mountain trail through thick rhododendron Wednesday when they disturbed a yellow jacket nest under a boulder. Tools were cast aside as the students scattered from the swarm.</p><p>Several were stung, but the eight-person crew just let the bees settle down and kept working, moving boulders with steel levers, lopping limbs and breaking rock with sledges. It was all in a day's work for the North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps recruits.</p><p>While many of their friends partied at the beach this summer, members of this NCYCC crew were getting back to nature while bolstering their resumes, camping out for five weeks in the gorge and building trail for the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. </p><p>“This is our first step into the world of conservation work,” said William Shay, 21, an N.C. State University student from Sanford who hopes to become a fisheries biologist. “I also feel like, I'm going into my senior year and if there's anything that's going to get me ready for the intense work that I need to do well next semester, this is it.”</p><p>Shay is among 32 students who will spend seven weeks this summer working on projects to preserve, restore and improve some of North Carolina's most treasured lands. Modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, the NCYCC uses the natural world as a platform for teaching jobs skills, community service and environmental stewardship.</p><p>It will take the co-ed crew five weeks to painstakingly construct 1 mile of trail across steep terrain from Little Bearwallow Falls to Wildcat Rock, the second phase of a three-mile connection that will eventually allow hikers and trail runners to travel a 15-mile loop through the upper Hickory Nut Gorge.</p><p>Made possible by three landowners who have donated or sold almost 130 acres to CMLC, the conservation project will give visitors their first opportunity to explore Wildcat Rock's granite outcroppings and the verdant forest of Little Bearwallow Mountain's northeastern slopes.</p><p>Last spring, a crew from the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and a private trail contractor, Trail Dynamics, completed the first, mile-long phase of the Little Bearwallow Trail for CMLC. It climbs 650 feet to a 100-foot waterfall and will be opened to public access Aug. 27.</p><p>But the second phase tackled by the NCYCC crew is “much more labor-intensive because it parallels cliff faces and goes through a lot of boulder fields,” said Peter Barr, trails and outreach coordinator for CMLC. “We're fortunate to have such an incredibly skilled crew who can manipulate rock so well to make a trail under these rugged conditions.”</p><p>Compared to their last assignment this summer at Spencer Woods Park near Salisbury, the Little Bearwallow work is both more strenuous and less predictable, said NCYCC crew leader Eamon Brennan, a Michigan City, Ind. native who has lived out of his truck for the past six years building trails in New York, Vermont and Arizona.</p><p>“Here, everything is like a little puzzle,” Brennan said. “You have to figure out how you're going to get this massive rock down this slope safely. How are you going to get it in place and how to do you make sure it's stable? Every little thing is a very elaborate, creative process. You're always thinking.”</p><p>Crew members start their day around 5:30 a.m., eating a communal breakfast in camp and preparing lunches for their day in the field. Aside from a mid-morning and mid-afternoon “GORP break” and lunch, the crew spends roughly nine hours a day hiking, raking out trail beds, moving boulders, building steps and busting rock. </p><p>They're paid minimum wage for the rugged work, which Shay acknowledged isn't as much as he could make waiting tables or landscaping, as he's done in past summers.</p><p>“But the good thing about being here is you don't have to spend money,” he said. “Even though I don't make as much money doing this and it's just as hard — if not harder — work, I'm going to have more money saved at the end of the summer than I would otherwise.”</p><p>For Shakita Holloway, 23, of Burlington, work in Hickory Nut Gorge is an opportunity to build her resume after earning a graduate degree in anthropology from the Catholic University of America. She hopes to become an archaeologist.</p><p>“Right now, I'm just trying to do as much field work as possible,” she said. “It'd be good to have excavation experience, but this is helpful.”</p><p>There are other perks to the lifestyle of camping out for seven weeks and working in the woods, Brennan said.</p><p>“The best part is you get back in the cycle with the actual seasons and the sun,” he said. “You still use flashlights, but we wake up by 5:45 every morning and I'm usually in bed by 9:30, so it's kind of different from what I do during my off-season.”</p><p>Besides the occasional bees nest, the young laborers must contend with lightning, damp gear and a string of minor injuries from working with rock and tools. Crew members can't use cell phones, alcohol or tobacco during their service. But Shaw Stanford, an N.C. State senior from Beaverdam, Va. said that's little sacrifice.</p><p>“I've done basic construction work during the summer and I've coached baseball one summer, but I grew up in the woods hunting and fishing and this is where I belong,” he said. “I'd rather be doing this than be inside doing paperwork or something.”</p><p>The public is invited to explore the first phase of the Little Bearwallow Trail at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug 27 at the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge trailhead on U.S. Highway 74-A. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held by CMLC, Henderson County Parks and Recreation and the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce. Visit www.carolinamountain.org or call Barr at 697-5777 for more details.</p><p>___</p><p>Reach Axtell at than.axtell@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7860.</p>